Carbon accounting, sustainable meat production, Microsoft's sneaky acquisition, and many more...
What's Up Tech? #175
Welcome to our 175th newsletter, written with 🖤 by Justine Pelisson.
Last week was START Summit, the largest student run startup event in Europe! Many of our fellows also attended the 2 day conference in St. Gallen, meeting VCs, founders and startups as well as the next generation of investors and entrepreneurs!
Couldn’t make it to START? Catch us at Vivatech in Paris next!
Fundraisings from last week with Solaris, Greenly, and World Fund
News from last week with Microsoft’s hidden acquisition of Inflection AI, Meatable’s new record, Stability AI’s CEO resignation
Internships & Job offers of the week
Enjoy the read! 🌞
💳 Solaris secured €96M to strengthen its financial solutions (🇩🇪)
German startup Solaris, Europe's leading embedded finance platform, just concluded a €96 million Series F financing round to secure ADAC credit card program, bolster core capital, and enhance platform resilience. 🤌
Solaris is known for offering modular B2B solutions that enable partner companies to provide customer-focused financial services. They pioneered the banking-as-a-service market, facilitating easy access to financial services for customers across various industries. 🙌
🌱 Greenly secured $52M to simplify CO2 tracking for smaller businesses (🇫🇷)
Paris-based Greenly, known for its carbon accounting tech, raised $52 million in a Series B round to expand its carbon accounting software for smaller businesses. 💼
The software tracks CO2 emissions across operations, aiding companies in meeting net-zero goals. With plans to double annual recurring revenue, Greenly aims to automate life cycle assessments for products, attracting investors' interest in climate tech. 💸
Greenly Lands $52M to Help Smaller Companies Track CO2 Emissions
🚀 World Fund launched €300M fund to propel climate tech startups (🇩🇪)
Berlin-based climate VC World Fund unveiled a €300M fund dedicated to climate tech founders, aiming to bridge the Series B 'Valley of Death' and support startups decarbonizing industries. 🪴
Backed by prominent investors and led by experienced climate tech investors, the fund targets 25-30 investments across Europe, addressing regulatory challenges and fostering long-term growth in the sector. 📈
🤝 Microsoft $650M cash deal with Inflection AI
Microsoft has struck an unusual deal with AI startup Inflection, agreeing to pay about $650 million in cash. This arrangement grants Microsoft access to Inflection's models and enables them to hire the majority of the startup's staff, including its co-founders. Inflection AI, under new leadership, aims to navigate through the transition and continue operations.
Microsoft pays Inflection $650 mln in Licensing Deal while Poaching Top Talents
🥩 Meatable sets new speed record in cultivated meat production (🇳🇱)
Meatable, a Netherlands-based frontrunner in the cultured meat industry, achieved a breakthrough by transforming pluripotent stem cells (ie. special cells that can turn into many different types of cells in the body) into high-quality fat and muscle tissue in just four days, a process 60 times faster than traditional farming! 😵
Their Opti-Ox technology, a patented method, promises scalable, cost-efficient, and sustainable meat production, heralding a new era for eco-friendly food solutions.🌱
Meatable Can Now Transform Cultivated Cells Into Sausages in a Record Four Days
🤖 Stability AI CEO resigns advocating for decentralized AI
Emad Mostaque has just stepped down from Stability AI to pursue decentralized AI, citing concerns over the dominance of centralized AI models. He emphasized the need for transparent and distributed governance in AI development, advocating for a shift away from centralized control.. 🔄
Stability AI CEO Resigns Because You’re ‘Not Going To Beat Centralized AI with More Centralized AI’
Internships
VC Analyst - Educapital (Paris)
VC Analyst - Capgemini Ventures (Paris)
VC Intern - eCAPITAL (Münster)
Jobs
Associate - Raise (Paris)
Tech VC Analyst/Associate - Elaia (Paris)
VC Associate, Growth Team - Speedinvest (London, Munich, Berlin Paris, Vienna)
👉 If you’d like to discover more offers, you can check our job board just here or fill this form to submit a new one.
You can also read more about baby vc on our website and follow our updates on LinkedIn, or directly reach out to us at hello@baby-vc.co! 🤝
The whole baby vc crew 🖤